A cylinder head for a multi-cylinder liquid-cooled internal combustion engine, with a cooling chamber configuration adjacent to a fire deck, which is divided by an intermediate deck essentially parallel to the fire deck into a lower cooling chamber next to the fire deck, and an upper cooling chamber adjoining the lower one in the direction of the cylinder axis, where upper and lower chamber communicate with each other via at least one first transfer opening, and where at least one first transfer opening is provided in the area of an opening receiving a preferably centrally disposed fuel injection device, and where at least one coolant inlet per cylinder, which is preferably located in the fire deck, opens into the lower cooling chamber, and at least one coolant outlet departs from the upper cooling chamber, and where a lower cooling chamber is associated with each cylinder and the lower cooling chambers of at least two adjacent cylinders are essentially separated from each other by a partitioning wall and the coolant flow in the lower cooling chamber is essentially transverse to the cylinder head, and where the upper cooling chamber extends over at least two cylinders.
In powerful compression-ignition internal combustion engines with strong heat generation, for example, a single continuous cooling chamber for a coolant passing longitudinally through the cylinder head will not provide sufficient cooling of the fire deck. Insufficient heat transfer from the cylinder head, however, may lead to material deformation, leaks and cracking.